Start wielding rage like the weapon it is, Lindy West argues with her collection of cultural feminist essays, The Witches Are Coming. With her signature wit and snark, West flips on its head the "witch hunt" narrative spread by conservatives in the wake of the #MeToo movement. She picks apart the webs of power and complacency that have led to the crux of the "witch hunt" cries: namely, that those fighting for justice are crafting a baseless "mass hysteria." West, a New York Times columnist and the mind behind the Hulu comedy Shrill, counters with this: "There is power in saying, no, we will not settle down. We will not go back.... So fine, if you insist. This is a witch hunt. We're witches, and we're hunting you."
Some might argue West's book is an echo chamber, a gift for folks who already believe everything she is proclaiming, but West demands action from her readers and her critics alike. This isn't a book for plausible deniability.
Using seemingly unconnected observations from her career as a cultural critic--riffs on Gwyneth Paltrow's wellness empire, Guy Fieri's Guy's Grocery Games and Joan Rivers's self-deprecating comedy all make the cut--West weaves arguments both eviscerating and human. Not all will agree with her words, nor her ferocity when slinging them, but West finds popularity points laughable. As a woman and a self-proclaimed fat person, she's endured enough abuse that she's not here to spread platitudes. She's here to make magic from fury. Her arguments don't always land, but when they do, it's enough to make any reader want to take up spell-casting. --Lauren Puckett, freelance writer